Oba Kakou

Japanese: 大庭柯公 - おおば・かこう

Year of death: Unknown (Year of death unknown)
Year of birth: July 27, 1872 (August 30, 1872)
A newspaper journalist and essayist in the Meiji and Taisho periods. His real name was Kageaki. He was born in Chofu-cho, Yamaguchi Prefecture (Shimonoseki City) as the third son of Oba Kageaki and Tokiko. He followed his father to Tokyo, but his father remained in misfortune and died in 1884 (Meiji 17). After that, he studied English and Russian at night school while working as a waiter and clerk, during which he became acquainted with Futabatei Shimei and was greatly influenced by him. In 1896, he went to Vladivostok as an interpreter for a Russian trading post, and after returning to Japan, he worked as a Russian language teacher and interpreter for an army division in Kagawa and the General Staff. In 1904, he went to Vladivostok again, but was arrested on suspicion of being a revolutionary. He returned to Japan in the autumn of the same year and joined the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, and in the late Meiji period, he traveled to Australia, the Philippines, South America, and Europe as a correspondent for the company, and published travelogues. After working for the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun, he moved to the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun Company, where he covered the European eastern front during World War I (1914-19), and made a name for himself as a writer. Influenced by democracy, he gradually developed an interest in labor and social movements, but in 1918 (Taisho 7), the White Rainbow Incident, a literary scandal at the Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspaper that had advocated against the end of the Russo-Japanese War, had repercussions in Tokyo, and he left the Asahi Shimbun Company to seek independence for intellectuals, such as by proposing a Newspaper Journalists' Union and founding a Writers' Union. In 1919 (Taisho 8), he joined the Yomiuri Shimbun Company, where he wrote about foreign affairs. After the 1910 Revolution, he traveled from Siberia to Moscow to inspect Russia, but was suspected of being a military spy and imprisoned. His whereabouts after that are unknown, but he is presumed to have died in 1921. He was not only a polemicist for Taisho democracy, but a unique figure who tried to put its ideas into practice in journalism. <Author> “Ke Gong Complete Works” edited by Ke Gong Complete Works Publishing Association

(Teruo Ariyama)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：没年不詳(没年不詳)
生年：明治5.7.27(1872.8.30)
明治大正期の新聞記者,随筆家。本名景秋。山口県長府町(下関市)に大庭景明ととき子の3男として生まれる。父に従って上京したが,父は不遇のまま,明治17(1884)年死去。以後,給仕や書生をしながら夜学で英語,ロシア語を学び,その際二葉亭四迷との交際を経て大きな影響を受けた。29年ウラジオストクに渡りロシア商館の通訳,帰国後は香川の陸軍師団や参謀本部のロシア語教師,通訳などを勤めた。39年再度ウラジオストクに渡ったが,革命派の容疑を受け拘禁される。同年秋帰国し,大阪毎日新聞社に入社,明治末期は同社特派員として豪州,フィリピン,南米,ヨーロッパを旅行し,紀行記を発表。『東京日日新聞』を経て,東京朝日新聞社に移り,第1次世界大戦(1914～19)の欧州東部戦線を取材し,文名をあげた。民本主義思想の影響を受け,労働運動や社会運動への関心を次第に深めたが,大正7(1918)年,日露戦争講和反対論を展開していた『大阪朝日新聞』の筆禍・白虹事件の余波が東京におよんだことから朝日新聞社を退社し,新聞記者組合の提唱,著作家組合設立など知識人の自立を模索する。8年読売新聞社に入社し,外交問題に筆をふるった。10年革命後のロシア視察のためシベリアからモスクワに入ったが,軍事スパイの嫌疑を受け投獄された。その後の消息は不明だが,13年死没したと推測される。大正デモクラシーの論客としてだけでなく,その思想をジャーナリズムにおいて実践しようとした独自の存在であった。<著作>柯公全集刊行会編『柯公全集』

(有山輝雄)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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